By now you probably know that there’s going to be a new school’s chancellor and her name is Cathleen P. Black.
She’s got quite a resume—for a publishing executive that is. When it comes to education or education policy she hasn’t done much. But Mayor Bloomberg seems to think she’ll be a good leader of the Department of Education, a position one would think requires some knowledge of education.
Think again.
According to the NY Times, “she’s a tough-minded chief executive who never left her employees guessing what she wanted.”
She wrote a book called Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and Life) published in 2007. Here from the publisher’s book jacket blurb: “She is the wise, funny mentor that every woman dreams of having. She was a pioneer in advertising sales at a time when women didn’t sell; served as president and publisher of the fledgling USA Today; and, in her current position as the president of Hearst Magazines, persuaded Oprah to launch a magazine. In 2006 she was named one of Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women in American Business” for the seventh consecutive year. Now, in the exuberant, down-to-earth voice that is her trademark, Cathie explains how she achieved “the 360° life”—a blend of professional accomplishment and personal contentment—and how any woman can seize opportunity in the workplace.”
As noted above, Black was the chairwoman of Hearst Publishing and one-time chief at USA Today, and will be the first woman to head the NYC school system, which serves 1.1 million students in over 1,600 schools.
Interestingly she nor her children ever attended public school. Born on the Southside of Chicago, she went to Catholic school and her children attended boarding schools.
Not only has Bloomberg hired an education novice to head up the largest school system in the US, he’s hired someone who’s probably never been inside a public school either.
But lets give her a chance…it’s a tough job and someone’s got to do it. I withdraw this comment I was just being glib.
Bloomberg has a good idea here. The Education Department needs a CEO. She can bring together a team of advisers who already know the minutiae of one of the nation’s worst known bureaucracies. Klein has tried to right Education, Black can keep it going by trying to run it like a business. That means accountability.
Agreed on why not someone who KNOWS anything at all – CARES ABOUT- public education..?
The more I think about it, the more outrageous I am finding this appointment. Running one of the largest, most complex and most vital civic undertakings on the old Biz School Slash and Burn Children as Widgets Model. And casting the fight as one of union-breaking when we desperately need to let a thousand flowers bloom and to support children, families, teachers, principals…
But why not someone who know about education?